Top Chef - New York - Page 4

Good point. I'm not sure if it's an issue of self-confidence as much as it's an issue of high standards-- Carla comes off as being pretty picky when it comes to her own output, but maybe that's just me.

As for Stefan, I really think there's no question that he's the season's prick. I'm not sure how Hosea really qualifies-- apart from being whiny and making excuses for himself on occasion, he's obviously a nice guy on the surface. Stefan, I think, is a nice guy at heart, but he uses competition as an excuse to be a petulant child. He's spent the season lording his know-how over other contestants, and inciting arguments solely for the purpose of pissing off his opponents. And on many an occasion, he's been wrong.

I like him, but he's a jackass. No question.

that is why I said Stefan is the season' Eddy from Deep Cover, you know good nature asshole. I just dislike people like Hosea more then I dislike people like Stefan. you can't trust a Hosea, he the fair weather friend at best .

That's the thing. Stefan isn't a good-natured asshole. He's just an asshole. There is nothing about his dickish behavior that could be considered good-natured by any stretch of the means.

Stefan is kind of two people-- he's a nice guy when not competing, he's a jackass when he's competing. When the latter, he's as far from the former as possible.

But I might just dislike Stefan a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

Exactly. With Stefan you know what you're getting. With Hosea you get a whiner you may or may not be able to trust. I still would like to see Stefan win but I'm liking Carla more and more. She was just so bad at the beginning I think she still isn't the chef Stefan is.

I think its editing. I posted earlier in the thread that Stefan and Jaime were really good friends despite all the editing that showed them screaming at each other all the time. There's no doubt he's a competitive jerk, but I think the asshole stuff is his TV persona. You can see him trying to get under Hosea's skin on purpose not only because it rattles Hosea and fucks with his confidence, but it makes for good TV. But if you watch the end scenes after Judges Table every episode, Stefan is one of the first to hug people and wish them well.

It may or may not be a TV persona. Frankly, I think he's a nice guy with dickish tendencies. If it just came down to competition, he wouldn't antagonize people when not competing (see the vinaigrette argument, the fish argument in Emeril's restaurant, the argument over Eugene's make-it-yourself sushi).

Let me modify that slightly. His dickishness comes out in competition. He's a competitive person by nature, so this persona comes out even when he's not directly engaged in a competition. He makes competition. I know people who are like that who are fabulous people when they're not trying to turn, say, dinner into a competition. (Forgive my anecdotal evidence.) Stefan seems to be the same way.

This doesn't speak to whether or not he should/will win. If he wins, then he clearly earned it, and I would be happy seeing him win. He's a dynamite chef.

I do and don't see your point. The entire run of the show is a competition. Trying to dissect when Stephan will be dickish seems silly. He seems to be an arrogant person whether cooking or not, but that doesn't mean he's an asshole. I don't think he's mean-spirited though and that is what I infer from your comments about him.

Top Chef is a competition, but the contestants aren't always competing. Moments in the apartment exist because of the competition, but they're not part of it in the way that a Quickfire or Elimination challenge is. Stefan definitely doesn't see it that way-- he's in full-on competition mode at all times.

I don't see how you inferred the above based on what I said in the first part of the quote. I think he's done some mean-spirited things, and said some mean-spirited things, but competition does strange things to people.

Good for Hosea. Based on the meals he and Stefan presented, I agree with their choice. As soon as Carla got Casey i knew it would be bad news. Casey has a ton of ideas and because Carla doesn't have the confidence to stand by her own ideas, it seemed inevitable that she'd be swayed. i loved that Stefan was moved by Carla's tears. He's a passionate guy, but he's not heartless.

I'm surprised Hosea won in the long run. Given tonight's dishes however, he definitely deserved it. It's hard though, Stefan was so goddamn solid throughout the whole competition, aside from his attitude, I really thought he had it locked. Tricky Bravo editors!

Hosea presented the best meal, this was Stefan's to lose (just like Richard from last year) and he blew it.
The editing of this show built up the fact that Carla listened too much to Casey and Stefan froze the fish.

I was disappointed by the chefs they picked to help them, you had two really good ones and Casey who wasnt that great and floated through her season. I was disappointed Stefan didnt use any of Wolvernines techniques.

I don't think Hosea did anything spectacular all season, but he was consistent.

I felt really bad for Carla, her emotions actually moved me.

I think Hosea has been intentionally flying under the radar all season, only occasionally displaying his talents as a cook. It's a strategy. Toby Young mentioned in his blog that he's observed/judged British food competitions where the earliest people to get eliminated were the ones who took risks, while the ones who played safe went the furthest. I believe this is true of Hosea, too.

It's funny, the one guy no one (in this thread) really wanted to win took the whole thing. In the end I like Hosea, but I was really, really rooting for Carla. Casey completely hosed her, though. Carla really should have been firm with her and kept her meal her own. I also found that pairing to be pretty odd, since I seem to remember Casey also getting butterflies in the season 3 finale; putting the two of them together sounds like a bad idea on paper. In practice, it was, but for different reasons. Still, Carla should be proud-- she achieved a ton, and surprised a lot of people who doubted her ability to succeed. I will certainly be going to her restaurant in March when I take a business trip down to the area, and I eagerly anticipate the love in her food.

(Side note: I truly admire her philosophy of approaching competition with love.)

Stefan shot for the stars and missed. I think he just go a little overconfident. I don't think that he thinks too critically about what he's cooking and whether or not it makes sense. He still put out a good meal, though, so good for him.

I was really happy to see Richard Blaise again. What a great guy.

EDIT: Read Toby's latest blog on Bravo. It details the disagreement he had with the other judges over who should win, and is actually extremely interesting. Plus, he doesn't use any stupid puns-- which is amazing.

It seems like the finale came down to Stefan thinking simply making a dessert would give him an edge over Hosea. He didn't really appear to consider anything about the dish other than the fact that it was a dessert. It would have been interesting to see if the same level of execution on something the judges appreciated more conceptually would have been enough to carry the day for him.

Casey is a trying to repair her image by trashing Carla's. FU lady!

Casy knifes Carla in the back:

And apparently Carla has been telling interviewers that it wasn't Casey's fault, and that she doesn't blame Casey.

Like night and day, these two.

Whoa. I just heard Carla on NPR and she took complete responsibility for the problems with her meal.

She also said it wasn't supposed to be a souffle but a custard that got overheated that curdled.

Either way, she was very gracious towards Casey. Sounds pretty bitchy on Casey's part, wow.

ETA : agracru beat me to the punch a bit

I didn't really think the show made Casey look bad. It was simply that Carla didn't execute; she listened to Casey's influence instead of doing stuff that was more in her wheelhouse, and it cost her. It was clear Carla wasn't on her game, and she took full responsibility (at least in the edit we saw.) Sounds like Casey overcompensated for the damage the finale could have done to her reputation and ended up making herself look worse.

Fuck Hosea.

I am also disappointed that Hosea won. I don't think he was anything great, the other two just choked. Hosea also had Richard to help him.
I like Carla, but have to agree with Casey here. She did let the last coarse over cook. The show did make it seem like it was Caseys' influence, so I don't blame her for being defensive. I still love you Casey.
In Stefans defense, didn't he win one of the challenges with a desert? I thought it was smart of him at the time.

Hosea speaks

On Stefan:

On Carla:

More in link.

That was painful. I kinda rooted for Hosea only because of Richard, but I expected Stefan to win this. Shame.

If the show made it look like Carla's meal had Casey's influence, it's because it did. It doesn't make Casey look like the bad guy, but it doesn't shy away from indicating that Casey's suggestions were ultimately what led Carla astray. Had she stuck to her guns and cooked what she always cooked, she probably would have won the whole thing. It's not really Casey's fault, and the editing kind of does put it on Carla.

The whole thing is kind of a mess. Shame on Casey for her reaction.

My sentiments exactly. Fuck him. Being "consistent" throughout a season doesn't make a Top Chef. Stefan was robbed. I'm really disappointed in this decision. Hosea cheated by not making desert, no matter the rules. What a weak cop-out. $5 says Hosea is back at the Golden Corral in a year.

What? If the rules don't require a dessert to be made, how is Hosea cheating? The only salient point to be made regarding his decision to do a savory dish over a dessert was made by Hubert Keller-- Hosea, as a chef, should be able to make a great dessert. I completely agree. That said, that's not part of the criteria of the challenge, and it comes down to how good the chef's meals were. Like Hosea or dislike him, but the "cheating" accusation is invalid.

Casey's reaction what the fuck? The sous vide may have cost Carla the win, but it didn't matter because of the desert crashed. Carla didn't have to go along with it, but she did, so it is her fault. Carla lost because her desert ctashed, if it hadn't she may still have won, even with the sous vide.

Hosea was certainly the most needy. The other two already have there business set up, so I thought the whole idea of the money was to help them open their own restaurants. So it is cool the Hosea won. I still think Carla just flaked. Funny thing is Casey did the same thing on her last meal.

Hosea was my pick from day one. I pick a horse every season by the end of the first episode. I have been right 3 out of 5 seasons. My picks were Harold, Sam, Tre, Stephanie, and Hosea. I thought Hubert Keller's comment about dessert were off the mark. Scads of top notch chefs don't work in the dessert area. Most chefs, when they're opening their restaurants, make sure they hire a stud patissier. Stefan was talented but ultimately his arrogance led him to underestimate his competition and in the restaurant business that is death. I also can't believe he didn't have the foresight to realize that freezing the fish would make a soggy mess. In my eyes freezing the fish to get a thinner cut is a red flag indicating insecurity with your knife skills.

Hubert's not off the mark at all. Sure, plenty of talented chefs don't deal with desserts. They don't rank among the greats as a result, because they haven't mastered techniques required for making desserts. In turn they limit themselves.

This drives me crazy. If the idea is to help out a needy chef then that is an entirely different show than Top Chef. Maybe I'm wrong but Top Chef is designed to pick the BEST chef (cook, leader, decision maker, etc.) rather than the neediest. Most needy, please.

I was just saying that of the three, he needed it the most. I think he won because he did do the best meal of the three. It was just nice because he needed it more. I wasn't saying that was why he won.

Of course people are entitled to believe what they want, but a good friend of mine is a bartender and was working the night they had a cast party at the lounge she works at. She said that Hosea and Leah were making out pretty openly.

Why wouldn't they? Both of them are no longer with their significant others.